Leaders Montpellier can help themselves, and also the five teams immediately behind them, when they take on Pau on Saturday in the penultimate league round of the French Top 14.
Montpellier top the table by six points and a win would guarantee first place and a bye in the first round of the playoffs, regardless of what their pursuers do.
Pau are seventh, one place out of the post-season spots, and defeat could eliminate them.
Whatever happens, Montpellier are planning a “carnival,” with fancy dress and prizes, to celebrate the last regular-season home game of a season in which the club, which has never won the French title, has continued their rise.
For one Pau player, former All Black Conrad Smith, this match represents a final chance to reach the Top 14 playoffs and an opportunity to extend his career by a few matches.
The double Rugby World Cup winner has announced that at 36, he plans to retire after this season.
It looks like Bryan Habana won’t get his perfect send-off at Toulon
Another RWC winner, Bryan Habana, 34, has also declared that this season will be his last.
But like fellow Toulon winger Vincent Clerc, a RWC finalist with France, who is also quitting, Habana will probably not get a chance to play in what could be Toulon’s last home game of the season.
Toulon, in fourth, take on Castres who are four points behind in sixth. The race is so tight that either team could finish in the top two, and gain a bye, or drop to eighth and miss the playoffs.
Toulon coach Fabien Galthie, like Habana a former World Rugby Player of the Year, hasn’t picked the South African in the league this season and has started Clerc only once.
With the stakes so high, Galthie is unlikely to give in to sentimentality now, and Habana isn’t happy that, unlike a former Toulon star, Jonny Wilkinson, he has not been allowed to “choose his exit.”
“I know that coaching is not easy,” Habana said this week. “In my position there are class players in Toulon.”
“But I think I have the profile and the experience to be an option…and at least to play one last time.”
Second-place Toulouse host the other outsider hoping to sneak into the play-offs, eighth-placed La Rochelle.
Your votes for #TryOfTheRound from the knockout stage were combined with the opinion of @beinsports_FR’s @RodolphePires and this @Racing92 score, finished by Leone Nakarawa, has come out on top. pic.twitter.com/EqXe0EL7jD
— Champions Cup (@ChampionsCup) April 26, 2018
‘Brain teaser’
Racing are third, level with Toulouse on points. But after winning a European Cup semi-final in Bordeaux last weekend, might feel less pressure when they return to the Chaban Delmas stadium to play Bordeaux, even though victory will ensure a play-off spot.
Yet Racing coach Laurent Labit said he dreams of “putting a star” on the Racing shirt by beating Leinster to become champions of Europe.
“It’s a huge brain teaser” said Labit. “You can’t fire blanks in the league but we have a squad to manage.”
At other end of the table Brive face a second consecutive game against a relegation rival.
In the last round, at Oyonnax, who started the match in last place, Brive were thrashed, 40-17.
On Saturday they are away to Stade Francais, the team Brive must catch to escape the drop.
To give themselves more time to recover from the bus trip north, bond as a team, and give themselves an extra night in Paris, Brive are travelling up on Thursday for the Saturday game.
“To stay longer together, emphasise how important this is, stay in our bubble,” said scrum half Samuel Marques. “That will allow us, I hope, to win the match.”
Saturday (21:45 AED time unless stated)
Toulon v Castres (15;45)
Agen v Clermont
Montpellier v Pau
Oyonnax v Lyon
Stade Francais v Brive
Sunday
Bordeaux v Racing 92 (15:30)
Toulouse v La Rochelle (17:50)
